By Orin Gordon

IT was fitting that Brian Lara was on TV commentary when Shamar Joseph led the West Indies’ charge to a test win over world champions Australia in Brisbane in the early hours of Sunday.

“Twenty-seven years to beat Australia in Australia”, an animated Lara told Fox Sports viewers as tears filled his eyes.

“Young, inexperienced, written off. This West Indies team can stand tall today. Today is a big day in West Indies cricket.”

In an adjacent radio broadcast booth, Lara’s fellow alumnus Carl Hooper slipped quietly out of his chair alongside Aussie ex-player Glenn McGrath and broadcaster/journalist Jim Maxwell. Hooper needed a quiet moment alone, composing himself and wiping away tears.

I know how they felt. I hope that my next-door neighbours forgive the 3am scream I let out as Joseph knocked over the last man, Josh Hazlewood.

As Joseph’s teammates chased him across the Gabba turf in uncontained joy, I felt a lump in my throat. The last time I felt that way was watching Lara, his teammates and the crowd go berserk in Bridgetown in 1999 when the great man scored 153 not out and Windies won with one wicket to spare.

I worked in the newsroom of BBC Sport in London then, the only Caribbean man there. Everyone in the vast space – news and sport – seemed to have stopped working. TV monitors were tuned to Barbados as Lara and Courtney Walsh dragged the West Indies over the line.

Lara drove Jason Gillespie to the extra cover boundary for the winning runs. He grabbed a stump and ran off in pure joy, bat and souvenir aloft. Players and spectators mobbed him and lifted him up. I lost it. Pride and emotion do funny things to us.

It’s often us and the Aussies in these soul-stirring test matches. The first tied test was also in Brisbane, in 1960. Joe Solomon ran out Ian Meckiff to leave the scores level. Solomon died last year, his name secure in cricketing history.

In 2003 in Antigua, West Indies scored the 418 runs Australia set them – the highest successful run chase in tests. The record still stands. Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan both scored centuries. Lara made 60 and added 91 for the fourth wicket with Chanderpaul.

Chanderpaul’s son, Tagenarine, would suit up for the West Indies almost 21 years later in Brisbane, in what history will record as the Shamar Joseph test.

A Mitchell Starc yorker slammed into the big toe of his right foot on Saturday night, bloodying it. He had to be helped off the field with a suspected broken/fractured toe. It was neither, but no one expected him to play on Sunday. After a nearly sleepless night, he lay on his bed till 11am. The decision to get on the team bus was made so late, he turned up wearing someone else’s shirt – name and number hidden by tape. A couple of painkillers later, he informed captain Kraigg Brathwaite that he was ready to bowl. And bowl he did… fast, straight and deadly. He hobbled back to his mark, and charged in at full speed. It was extraordinary to watch.

It hasn’t even been one year since Shamar Joseph played his first first-class cricket match, in February 2023; but in these past three weeks, the slightly built 24-year-old fast bowler (5’ 10” and 145 pounds) has become the most compelling player in the game.

You know his story. His home village, Baracara, is in a remote part of eastern Guyana that’s accessible only by boat. It has fewer than 400 inhabitants. Shamar gave up a job in logging because he felt it was too dangerous. His last job before he could fully commit to cricket was as a security guard.

Some of the folklore-style reporting exaggerated the time it takes to get to Baracara from the nearest big town, New Amsterdam – two days instead of two hours by boat – but Joseph doesn’t need embellishment. He’s sinewy fit – conditioning that helps him to generate pace of close to 150 kmph – comparable to the fastest bowlers in the game.

He’s poised, confident and personable in interviews. He’s no country bumpkin. He’s someone who puts in the grind, and has a knack for rising above his new, higher level. Guyana Amazon Warriors’ CPL T20 team management recognised that their net bowler was special, and brought him into the team as a temporary replacement for the injured Keemo Paul.

West Indies selectors picked him for the ‘A’ Team tour of South Africa last year. He took three wickets on his debut in East London and eight in the two matches that he played. That got him on the plane to Australia.

He proceeded to take a wicket with his first ball in test cricket in Adelaide – that of Steve Smith, one of the great players of the modern game. He took a ‘five-for’ in that match. He lashed 36 in his first knock, batting at Number 11. He took seven for 68 on Sunday, being voted the player of the match and player of the series.

Shamar’s has been a fairytale journey, but the great game humbles everyone. He’ll have matches with bowling figures of nought for 100; in which he registers a pair with the bat. However, he seems to have the equanimity and temperament to navigate the bad times when they arrive. He sounds like someone whom life has taught not to take anything for granted.